The diseases caused by phytopathogenic fungi are considered as the most harmful and of larger propagation at a world level. Nowadays the control of these diseases is based fundamentally in the use of chemical fungicides that despite their high toxicity, both for plants and humans that manipulate them and/or that work in fumigated fields, and their scarce biodegradation, continue to be massively used due to their relatively efficient activity against fungal diseases, in addition to the lack of efficient and environmentally more safer alternatives.
Botrytis cinerea is a phytopathogenic fungi that infects a great number of economically important vegetable species, including fruit trees, decorative plants and vegetables. This fungi produces a disease known as grey rot, resulting in a mayor problem both pre and post-harvest of strawberries, raspberries, apples, pears, chestnuts, kiwis and grapes, among others. In the grapevine this fungus produces the grape bunch rot, a disease that is currently considered as one of the most serious at a production level in the fruit export market in Chile, as it can cause great losses not only in the fields but also during storage and shipping (van Kan J. A. 2006. Licensed to kill: the lifestyle of a necrotrophic plant pathogen, Trends Plant Sci. 11, 247-253; Elad, Y., Williamson, B., Tudzynski, P. and Delen, N. eds. 2007. Botrytis: Biology, Pathology and Control. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers).
Today the control of this important phytopathogen is mainly carried out by chemical fungicides. However, in the last years some microorganisms having anti-fungal activity against B. cinerea have been described. Some of the most promissory examples is Serenade®, which active principle is a bacteria known as Bacillus subtilis QST 713, discovered in soil samples of a vegetable garden by the AgraQuest Inc. enterprise in Davis, Calif. This biofungicide is registered in various countries, including Chile. It has a low toxicity, and it is being commercially used in the United States for the control of diseases such as oidium (Uncinula necator), grey rot caused by Botrytis cinerea and acid rot in grapevines.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,869,038 describes bacterial isolates of the Pseudomonas fluorescens, Serratia liquefaciens, Serratia plymuthica, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus pumilis and Bacillus polymyxa species, that are effective in inhibiting the development of Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria brassicicola, fungi that causes post-harvest diseases in cabbages. The Serratia plymuthica bacteria described in this patent corresponds to the strain CL43, different from the bacterial strain in the present invention, and conveniently used in mixtures with the previously mentioned bacteria in order to inhibit the fungus development with a suitable efficiency. On the contrary, the bacterial strain CCGG2742 as a pure culture efficiently inhibits B. cinerea and it is not necessary to mix it with other bacteria in order to use it as a biofungicide.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,774 discloses a Bacillus subtilis strain to inhibit the development of pathogenic plant fungus and bacteria, and describes methods to treat or protect plants from infections with fungus and bacteria.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,506 refers to a novel Bacillus thuringiensis bacterial strain that presents a wide anti-fungal and anti-bacterial capacity. Furthermore, the use of the bacillus thuringiensis bacterial strain or the antibiotic that it produces for the control of a wide range of plant pathogenic bacteria and fungus is described.
Publication WO 00/57706 discloses a substantially pure biological culture of a Pantoea agglomerans bacterial strain, its use as antagonist for the biological control of fungi responsible for the fruit rot. A very high efficacy resulted from such antagonist and it is comparable to those synthetic fungicides that are of most use. The antagonist is effective to fight the rot caused by Botrytis cinerea, Penicillium digitatum, Penicillium expansum, Penicillium italicum and Rhizopus stolonifer. 
Publication WO 02/072795 discloses a group of bacteria that are antagonists for the protection against plants phytopathogenic fungi and bacteria. The isolated bacteria are the Paenibacillus polymyxa, Pseudomonas chlororaphis, Pseudomonas putida, Serratia plymuthica and Bacillus subtilis species. In this case, the bacterial strain Serratia plymuthica VKPM B-7957 is also different from the bacterial strain of the present invention, because when used in a pure culture, the efficacy of this bacteria against phytopathogenic fungus is very low, and it must be used in mixtures with other bacteria that have fungicide activity to boost its effect.
Publication WO 03/000051 discloses a biologically pure culture of a microorganism, Bacillus licheniformis, bacterial strain SB3086, to be used as a biofungicide.
The application of living organisms as biological control agents presents some limitations such as a narrow effective range against vegetable pathogens, and instability in time, resulting in a short permanence of the living organism in the environment and therefore a very low biopesticide action efficacy. Many of the bacterial strains used die within some weeks when subjected to standard storing conditions, or within hours in the typical conditions faced in the field, with relatively high temperatures and the deleterious effects of UV light on the actively growing microorganism. The attempts to grow said microorganisms in the same place where they should be used have been of some usefulness. However, the serious problems of culture contamination and the need of the biocontrol agent to be applied late in the day in order to prevent the effects of UV light and temperature make the system complicated and the process expensive.
This explains that for the time being an effective and environmentally friendly biological control method, that enables to inhibit the damage on plants originated by fungal diseases, has not been yet designed, thus constituting a great challenge to the scientists, and a great necessity to the agricultural industry, in order to diminish the use of synthetic chemical fungicides that currently are of massive use.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide an efficient, environmentally safe biological agent with biofungicide activity, for controlling plant's diseases caused by phytopathogenic fungus and microorganisms, in particular B. cinerea. 